A solemn Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner William Bratton led thousands of mourners at an emotional wake yesterday for slain city cop Randolph Holder, according to the New York Daily News.
One week after the 33-year-old murder, family members still found their loss hard to fathom even as they prepared for his funeral today.
“Why Lord?” wailed one distraught woman entering the jam-packed Greater Allen A. M. E. Cathedral with Holder’s family. “Why Lord?”
Relative Ruth Noel, 47, a Guyanese immigrant like Holder, said the mood inside the Queens church was somber and sad, the Daily News reported.
“Crying, weeping, consoling each other,” Noel said of the scene around the open tan-colored casket where Holder, 33, was laid out in his NYPD blues and eight-point police hat.
Bratton, accompanied by Public Advocate Letitia James, arrived shortly before 4 p.m. — followed 10 minutes later by the mayor and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
They entered the Queens church together. Bratton was expected to announce at today’s funeral that Holder was posthumously promoted to Detective First Grade.
Relatives said Holder’s goal as a cop was always to earn a gold detective’s shield.
Holder’s family arrived shortly before noon in a pair of white limousines.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan and former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly were among the huge crowd of mourners who began lining up before the wake began at 9 a.m.
Cliff Joseph, 69, is a retired cop from Guyana — where he trained the slain officer’s dad, Raymond Sr.
“I went to the house in Far Rockaway,” he said. “It’s sad. Grieving, crying, tears. I’m deeply saddened.”
Janice Jenkins, 56, waited 90 minutes to get inside the church. She waited with her nephew, who was a friend of the Holder family.
“It’s good that everyone came,” said Linden Andrews, 58, a cousin of Holder. “But it’s not going to bring back a life. We are holding up OK, by the grace of God.”
Stepmom Princess Holder said the family was devastated but finding solace within their religion, the Daily News reported.
Holder was shot to death one week ago along a pedestrian overpass. The suspect, Tyrone Howard, was arrested and charged with murder.
The funeral for the fallen officer will be held at the same Queens church at 3 p.m. today before his remains are returned to Georgetown, Guyana, for burial, the Daily News reported.
